Sheldon High's boys basketball program has committed many violations over the past school year, prompting sanctions by the California Interscholastic Federation, the organization announced Monday.

"We made mistakes," said Denise Aguilar, the Sheldon High School athletic director. "Until it was brought to our attention, nobody knew that we were making mistakes."

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Officials had earlier launched an investigation into the program, and have now made some decisions about the fate of the team.

Five current players have been declared ineligible, effective immediately, the CIF said in a news release. One of them can play again when next season starts. He hasn't yet been cleared for this season. The other four are ineligible for a full calendar year -- until Jan. 27, 2015.

An eighth-grader is banned from playing at Sheldon until the 2016-17 school year, according to the CIF. However, the same middle-schooler will be eligible to compete for another high school team in 2014-15, when he is a freshman.

Two senior transfer students were already deemed ineligible to play at Sheldon. They're currently in the middle of the state appeals process. The CIF didn't include these teens in the ban.

As for the entire team, the boys program won't be allowed to play in the Sac-Joaquin Section postseason this year.

"Obviously, some of the things being done were inappropriate," Aguilar said. "... They didn't actually happen here on campus, so it wasn't directly in our view."

Next season, along with in 2015-16, the schedule will be reduced from 27 to 24 games.

The program will have to pick only one tournament in which to participate this season and next, the CIF said. The team won't be permitted to play more than four games in the tournament and this doesn't include the CIF's postseason tourney.

Stricter regulations will be implemented when it comes to AAU practices held at Sheldon, as well.

Attendance sheets will be set out from here on, with the names of all players. All dates must be recorded, and a Sheldon administrator has to sign off on the sheets on a daily basis.

The athletic director of the Elk Grove Unified School District will be forwarded those documents on the 15th and 30th of each month, the CIF said.

For the remainder of this school year, as well as in 2015-16, the boys basketball team is on probation. If the Section finds any more bylaws to have been broken, more severe sanctions will be put in place.

"CIF is going to do extensive training for the coaches (and) they are also going to put on a parent night," said Todd Reiswig on behalf of the Elk Grove Unified School District.

The investigative report on the program determined there were several instances of "undue influence" in trying to persuade current high school players to transfer to Sheldon, as well as incoming middle schoolers to enroll at Sheldon High.

"These violations include, but are not limited to: Providing a free ticket to postseason events, parents paying for meals for potential future players, holding 'open gym' practices at Sheldon with players who were not currently enrolled at Sheldon (while this is not a Section violation, it becomes a violation when those players subsequently transferred to Sheldon) and non-Sheldon students playing in summer tournaments for a team representing itself as Sheldon High."

In addition, some incoming transfer students gave fraudulent information. A CIF rule says these students would have been deemed ineligible.

The district was commended for acting as soon as it heard about the violations. Still, the CIF said, there are consequences when a school or district self-reports bylaw infractions.

"We had a signed complaint that came forward, and as with any complaint of that nature, the district is going to investigate those claims," Reiswig said.

Sheldon High boys basketball coach Joey Rollings has been off the coaching job for about two weeks, and won't return to the gig for another two weeks, district officials confirmed to KCRA 3.

The district declined to comment on any official disciplinary action, but did say more than one person was reprimanded.